Scareware is the malware equivalent of spam. It’s everywhere. If you haven’t seen it yet, you will, in some form. This is a particularly grim version of the typical virus, able to infect a computer with a lot of Trojans simultaneously, including keyloggers. Scareware can be found on the most harmless looking sites, even pictures. If you’ve got your own computer repairs service, you can at least get some advice about how to manage it, but Scareware needs to be dealt with ASAP, so you may not have the luxury of getting advice when you need it.

Note: This article is intended to provide basic information about how to manage Scareware without getting too technical, but please be aware that you really do need some level of basic computer literacy to manage the issues.

Scareware attacks; Easily recognizable

Scareware attacks start with a bogus warning of a computer security issue with a dialog box for installing security fixes. This warning is usually designed to look authentic, but can sometimes tell you that a type of computer security you don’t even have is compromised.

The minute you see that screen:

• If you’re at work, notify your IT services administrator immediately. The viruses can get into the entire system.
• Don’t touch anything on the page or click on the “dialog box”. It isn’t a dialog box. The page is designed to download viruses if you click on anything, including any X buttons or other features of the warning.
• Close the browser tab. This shuts off any further access to your computer.
• Disconnect the internet connection, whether it’s a router or wireless, so the virus can’t access the internet. You may have the virus, but it can’t do much unless it’s connected to the net, and most importantly can’t start attacking your ID or online money or send your information anywhere.
• Run a full security scan with your antivirus software. This should pick up several Trojans, if they’ve infected your computer. (Also check the software’s “holding pen” or quarantine for anything it may have caught itself, which won’t show up on the security scan.) Don’t be surprised to find anything up to 10 or even more Trojans.
• Run another scan with an external name brand free scan like McAfee, AVG, or the Microsoft services. This is for confirmation that your computer is virus-free. Some of these scans, like the McAfee scan, can also identify cookies, which you can delete with your browser tools.
• Notify your bank that you might have a problem. They will understand, and will also look out for any unusual transactions.

Making absolutely sure you’re OK:

If you’re not technically minded, get help, and get it immediately. Your computer service people can tell you how to manage the problems, or do it for you.

Do not take the risk of possible infections:

People have been cleaned out in a few hours by viruses like these. It’s not worth the risk. Play safe, all the time.

Author Bio: Tom Mallet is an Australian freelance writer and journalist. He writes extensively in Australia, Canada, Europe, and the US. He’s published more than 500 articles about various topics, including computer repairs .

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the best way to build your link profile isn’t through trick and gimmicks; it’s through building real relationships with real people and offering them valuable content they will want to link to on their own.

You’ve probably tried being rather direct with your link-building efforts. You contact a website via e-mail, pitch your site, try to convince the reader that you’re worth linking to, and then wait to see what happens. This is a slow, arduous process with a low return rate. You may send out thousands of e-mails and only get a handful of positive responses.

Now, this doesn’t mean you just blindly throw your quality content onto the web and see what sticks. It doesn’t mean you take a passive approach to building links. But it does mean that instead of bluntly asking for links that you develop a real relationship with specific people from which you would like links.

This will take some research and will take some effort, but it will bring in quality results.

When looking for people to connect with, you need to find well-connected people who may actually be interested in what you have to offer. While I would love to get a link from a popular blog, if that blog isn’t relevant to my interests I would be wasting my time trying to connect with those people.

Once you have a group of people you’d like to connect with, engage with them over the various channels they provide. As always, it’s important that you add value to the conversation (i.e. saying more than “great article” or “this was interesting”). Throughout this process, you’ll need to ascertain their interests. What sort of content are they looking for?

After you develop this quality content they may be interested in, be sure they know about it. Don’t overwhelm them, but use that already-established relationship to pitch what you have to offer.

Again, this takes a bit more time and effort, but in the long run is well worth it.

For some people – probably due to their ability to hide behind the cover and anonymity of the Internet – doing business online or running an e-commerce website doesn’t require the same level of ethics as a traditional business.

This simply isn’t the case.

While there are plenty of unethical websites, even sites that are just scams to get your money or information, this doesn’t mean that the online world has more lax business ethics. And while there are plenty of offline businesses that are unethical, and while there seems to be an ever greater number of unethical online businesses, it doesn’t remove the need for every business to be ethical.

In fact, there really isn’t even a different set of ethics for online business compared to traditional businesses; the ethics of running a business holds true regardless.

The goal of your business is to provide quality products and services to your customers. It also involves being honest with your customers, your employees, and yourself. Your products should do what they claim to do and customers should get what they’re expecting to get. Even though they can’t come back into your store, item in hand, angry and demanding a refund, it doesn’t mean you’ll be able to build a successful business with shoddy products. In fact, ethics may be even more important in these cases as a customer can easily spread the story of their bad experience online or even go as far as having your website taken down.

Simply put, you shouldn’t make claims and promises about your business, your products, or your warranties that you can’t or won’t be able to back. Don’t deceive people with small print or use the convenience of the Internet to not deal with issues (i.e. not answering e-mails or not providing contact information).

Get the proper business liscenses, pay your taxes and any fees, and run a respectable business. Keep your customers’ information private.

Simply put, manage an ethical, honest business – even if it’s an e-commerce one.

I recently received an e-mail with this postscript:

P.S. I checked the weather and saw it is only 56°F in Lehi… A little nippy! It is a cool (for us) 43°F here at our office in Hicksville NY right now.

For those of you who may not be aware, the corporate headquarter of Professional Marketing International are in Lehi, UT and this individual – after discussing the business of the e-mail – decided to add a personal touch with a comment on the weather in Lehi as it relates to the weather in Hicksville.

First things first.

No one, when talking about the weather, is going to bother trying to figure out how to type the little ° symbol. I have no idea how to type that; I had to copy and paste it from their e-mail.

Secondly, if someone is talking about the weather, they would just type “56 degrees” or maybe just “56″ and count on context clues so I would know they were talking about the weather.

Lastly, if you look at the actual degrees cited, it was actually warmer in Lehi than in Hicksville (which is, apparently, a real place) so the postscript should really have read something like:

P.S. I checked the weather and saw it is 56°F in Lehi… It’s warming up! It is still cool (for us) 43°F here at our office in Hicksville NY right now.

The e-mail ended up being spam, which shouldn’t be surprising at all. It wasn’t from anyone I knew and the postscript was obviously an automated message which likely used RSS weather feeds to fill in the blanks.

But here’s the takeaway:

This is actually a good idea. For a half a second I thought this person actually put some effort in to personalize their e-mail. In the second half of that second I realized it was all a ploy, but for some of the less clever or less aware individuals out there, it may have actually worked.

But if you’re going to do something like this – institute an automated system to add a personal touch – do it right. Have the output be something different, depending on if the weather is warmer, colder, or about the same. Or don’t talk about the weather. Mention something from the local news or a local landmark.

Don’t lie and don’t deceive, but utilize the technology out there to draw people in.

Wishing you a successful new years from PMI!

After just a few great months with PMI, I’ve (sadly) had to put in my two week’s notice. My husband and I are relocating to the east coast and we’re thrilled for the new opportunities that are waiting for us there. It’s been a fun, albeit short, ride working as the principal blogger of pmiinternet.com. I’m sad to say goodbye to this great company and to the readers of this site, but I’m sure that my illustrious successor (who is still TBD) will do a great job taking over and making this blog their own.

Since we’re heading into a new era for this blog, we’d like to hear what thoughts or suggestions you may have about the site. What do you want to see more of? What are you sick of? Give us feedback by leaving a comment and we’ll do our best to incorporate your suggestions.

Best of luck to all of you lovely, intrepid conquerors of the interweb in your future endeavors!

-Courtney